If you want to get a job in this economy you better lose the “depression mindset” and start using social media to open more doors for you. Despite all the garbage you hear on TV about job losses, some companies are hiring, but they won’t come looking for you. You must go find them.
In this post you will learn how to bypass the “virtual gatekeeper” (the company’s career page) and get the attention of the recruiter you need for the job you want by using Linkedin.
Here is what to do.
1. Create your Linkedin profile page. Dan Schawbel wrote a nice post on using Linkedin to promote your personal brand. Go read it for some tips on creating a good Linkedin profile.
2. Go to the Linkedin homepage and click the Advanced Link at the top right by the Search People box.
3. Type the company name in the Company Field, recruiter or human resources in the Title field and click search.
4. This will bring up a list of the registered Linkedin recruiters in that company.
5. Use your intuition and click the link of the recruiter that looks good for your desired position.
6. Send an invitation to connect with a short, compelling message that calls the recruiter to action. The message will go to the e-mail address entered when they registered on Linkedin. Here is an example of a compelling message that worked for me.
7. If you do not have the right recruiter, the person you contacted will usually point you in the right direction. If they do not offer this information, politely ask for it.
8. Be prepared when they call or e-mail you back so you can have an intelligent conversation and impress who you’re talking to. At the very least, you should know what the company does and how they make money.
Using this Linkedin tip will differentiate you from the competition. It will show your creativity and social media know-how. Most importantly, it will get you noticed by a person with influence and begin a discussion that starts the interviewing process.
If your wondering if this will work for you — it will. This exact process worked 5 out of 5 times for me.
What are you waiting for? Go connect on Linkedin and get the job you truly desire!
If you know another Linkedin tip or a way we can all use Linkedin to create more opportunities please leave a comment below for all to read.
Author:
Chad Levitt is the author of the New Sales Economy blog, which focuses on how Sales 2.0 & Social Media can help you connect, create more opportunities and increase your business. Chad is also the featured Sales 2.0 blogger at SalesGravy.com, the number one web portal for sales pros, the professional athletes of the business world. Make sure to connect with him on Twitter @chadalevitt.
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Dan,
Your blog post is right on target. In fact, we’ve been running a series on our job search blog (http://www.impacthiringsolutions.com/careerblog) about some of the wonderful tools LinkedIn makes available for personal branding and job search. We’ve put up a FREE LinkedIn Profile Assessment through our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group.
Over 2000 job seekers have filled out the form and shared their self-assessment with us. Interesting that less than 10% can meet a minimum threshold for using LinkedIn as a Job Search tool.
Barry Deutsch
Partner
IMPACT Hiring Solutions
[...] How to Use Linkedin To Get The Job You Want – Chad [...]
[...] How to Use Linkedin To Get The Job You Want – Chad [...]
[...] How to Use Linkedin to get the Job You Want | Personal Branding Blog – Dan Schawbelpersonalbrandingblog.com [...]
Can someone please let me know how to create groups among LinkedIn connections? Say, all my work friends into one group, college friends into another group.
[...] A few tips on how you could use LinkedIn to get the job you want – by contacting recruiters and head hunters directly. – Link. [...]
Great post on using LinkedIn to build your brand, especially most needed during a job search. There are great tools which are untapped, and I commend you for covering some very important once we all should be using. I like the sample letter for reaching out to a recruiter – the handy template will come in use for some and be a real aha moment! Good stuff.
Thanks for posting – I will try this method myself, as well. Yet, you did not share what your reply to LinkedIn is when it asks: “How do you know __ ?” If you mark other, you must provide the recipient’s e-mail address that you most likely do not have, yet “Friend” would also be untrue and could lead the intended recipient to ask for LinkedIn to block you or punish you in some way, no?
Thanks in advance for your response, as I would like to consider this a genuine way of connecting with decision-makers at companies that I do not yet have connections within.
Have you tried asking for an introduction? Sometimes I will join a group that I know someone I want to connect with is a part of, especially if it’s in my area of interest, and then I will invite because I am a member of that group – I love LinkedIn and all its powerful tools – let’s connect if you’d like – my latest video I included in my slideshare application makes reference to Dan Schawbel, and points made in this awesome post – Vickie LinkedIn: http://tinyurl.com/vickpmp
@Matt: I never ran into a problem selecting friend as the option. My goal was to get access to the recruiter hiring for the job I wanted — recruiters admire initiative and I easily stood out from the pack by using Linkedin the way I describe in the post.
The situation will dictate what is best, but I urge you to take some risks if there are contacts on Linkedin you really want to connect with.
[...] useful tool for anyone that is job hunting, but sometimes it can seem impersonal. If you want to contact an individual recruiter or hiring manager instead of sending generic emails into cyberspace, listen to what Chad Levitt has [...]
[...] LE 4: How to Use Linkedin to get the Job You Want [...]